The present invention relates to production of fatty acids and more particularly to a method for producing hydrogenated fatty acids directly from crude or unrefined glyceride oils.
Presently, fatty acids are recovered by conventional fat-splitting techniques which are commonly practiced on refined glyceride oils. Fatty acids can be used in the acid form or they can be esterified, interesterified, polymerized, or subjected to a wide variety of techniques for producing products useful in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, the textile industry, the rubber industry, and a wide variety of other industries.
The present invention permits production of hydrogenated fatty acids without the cumbersome alkali degumming or refining step and eliminates the difficult fatty acid hydrogenation step normally required for production of hydrogenated fatty acids.